Virtual desktop switching and communications

US11734032B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC · US

Inventors

• Christiaan BRINKHOFF · Woodinville, US
• Sandeep Patnaik · Kirkland, US
• Jinhua FEI · Bellevue, US
• Prasanna Padmanabhan · Redmond, US
• Randall R. Cook · Springville, US
• Matthew Shadbolt · Redmond, US
• Roland Radtke · Brier, US
• John C. Whytock · Eatonville, US
• Gary De-Hong Liao · Bellevue, US
• Alexander Ryan Fromm · Woodinville, US
• Parthasarathy Sundararajan · Bellevue, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 14, 2022
• Grant date: Aug 22, 2023
• Expiry date: May 14, 2042

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F3/0481
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A desktop switcher provides equally convenient user interface navigational access to remote virtual desktops as to local virtual desktops for reliable and convenient human-computer interaction. Underlying mechanisms transparently confirm remote computer availability and compatibility, transfer thumbnails between computers, and support remoting sessions. Virtual desktops may share a clipboard, a geographic location setting, and application thumbnails, despite being based on computers that are remote from one another, e.g., when only one of a session's computers resides in a cloud. Virtual desktop context menus may be shown and utilized remotely. A visual separator in the desktop switcher may distinguish local virtual desktops from remote virtual desktops.